Recent methane surges reveal heightened emissions from tropical inundated areas

Record breaking atmospheric methane growth rates were observed in 2020 and 2021 (15.2±0.4 and 17.6±0.5 ppb yr^-1), reaching their highest level since the commencement of ground-based observations in the early 1980s. Here we use an ensemble of atmospheric inversions informed by surface or satellite methane concentration observations to infer emission changes during these two years relative to 2019. We found a global increase of methane emissions of 20.3±9.9 Tg CH₄ in 2020 and 24.8±3.1 Tg CH₄ in 2021. The emission rise was dominated by tropical and boreal regions with inundated areas, as a result of elevated groundwater table. Strong, synchronous, and persistent emission increases occurred in regions such as the Niger River basin, the Congo basin, the Sudd swamp, the Ganges floodplains and Southeast Asian deltas and the Hudson Bay lowlands. These regions alone contributed about 70% and 60% of the net global increases in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Comparing our top-down estimates with simulation of wetland emissions by biogeochemical models, we find that the bottom-up models significantly underestimate the intra- and inter-annual variability of methane sources from tropical inundated areas. This discrepancy likely arises from the models’ limitations in accurately representing the dynamics of tropical wetland extents and the response of methane emissions to environmental changes. Our findings demonstrate the critical role of tropical inundated areas in the recent surge of methane emissions and highlight the value of integrating multiple data streams and modeling tools to better constrain tropical wetland emissions.